Hayes 'pumped up' for head shaving

Kerrie Hayes has admitted that shaving her head for her role in The Mill had a downside.

The actress had to lop off her locks in the first series of the period drama when her alter-ego, feisty mill worker Esther Price, was punished for disobedience.

And while she believed it was right for the part, Kerrie joked she wasn't quite as happy with her new look when she wasn't in character.

"I was offered other methods but there didn't seem any point really. I just thought I might as well get on with it," she said.

"I say that now. While I was very excited and pumped up to do it, at the wrap party, when I had my own clothes on and some make-up, I was just left with this head!"

The actress is returning in the second series of the show, which focuses on the lives of the mill workers between 1838 and 1842.

The effects of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (which made a distinction between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor) were starting to take hold and desperate economic migrants from the south of England began to arrive at the mill in search of work.

A natural rebel with a revolutionary streak, Esther's never far from the action, not least when riots kick off.

"Oh yeah, she's right at the front going for it, of course!" laughed Kerrie, 27. "There's this one scene where everyone's doing a bit of looting. We were just given free reign and I think I stayed there the longest.

"I was in the prime of my life and really enjoyed it, because you get to do things you wouldn't normally get away with."

:: The second series of The Mill begins on Channel 4 on Sunday, July 20.